Not once in the previous 16 Indian Premier League (IPL) player auctions had a bid reached closer to the Rs. 20-crore mark. In fact, the auction purse for each team at the start of the IPL in 2008 was Rs. 20 crore.
On Tuesday, the barrier was broken. Not just once but twice. Australia’s World Cup-winning pace duo of captain Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc shattered all the records, emerging as the biggest beneficiaries of the IPL phenomenon.
While Cummins became the first to overhaul the Rs. 20-crore barrier when the Sunrisers Hyderabad outbid the Royal Challengers Bangalore to sign Cummins for a whopping Rs. 20.50 crore.
Minutes later, in a one-on-one face-off between Kolkata Knight Riders and Gujarat Titans, Starc emerged as the most expensive player ever in IPL with KKR bagging him for a whopping Rs. 24.75 crore.
When the bidding for Starc - slotted in the fourth set of the auction at the Coca-Cola Arena here - began, both KKR and GT had more than Rs. 31 crore in their kitty. It was a given that the franchises would loosen their purse to have the prized catch.
Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals started the bidding war before handing it over to the two key contenders around the Rs. 10-crore mark. Then on, the next eight minutes saw mayhem and a plethora of oohs and aahs from the audience - the first such instance of a live audience at an IPL auction - before KKR had the last laugh.
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Soon afterwards, Chennai Super Kings signed New Zealand sensation Daryl Mitchell for Rs. 14 crore. The defending champion also had another Kiwi addition to its roster in promising allrounder Rachin Ravindra (Rs. 1.80 crore).
Mumbai Indians benefited from Gerald Coetzee’s (Rs. 5 crore) name cropping up before Starc and Cummins as it added the young South African to its squad for a reasonable price. It also enabled them to go for another overseas pacer in Sri Lanka’s Dilshan Madushanka (Rs. 4.60 crore) despite entering the auction with a limited purse.
Besides Cummins, Sunrisers also added Australia’s on-song opener Travis Head (Rs. 6.80 crore) while Rajasthan Royals spent more than half of its auction purse on West Indies’ power-hitter Rovman Powell (Rs. 7.40 crore) who was the first player to be offered by auctioneer Mallika Sagar.
Among the Indian cricketers, Harshal Patel (Rs. 11.75 crore) emerged as the most expensive signing, with Punjab Kings welcoming the effective death bowler with open arms.
In all, a staggering amount of Rs. 230.45 crore was spent by the 10 franchises while signing a total of 72 slots. It wasn’t just the international cricketers that benefited from the Moneyball.
More than a dozen domestic cricketers joined the crorepati club, with Sameer Rizvi (Rs. 8.40 crore), a young big-hitter from Uttar Pradesh, leading the pack. Chennai Super Kings got hold of Rizvi after a fierce bidding war that also involved GT and Delhi Capitals.
Kumar Kushagra (Rs. 7.20), the Jharkhand wicketkeeper-batter, went to the Capitals while Tamil Nadu’s Shahrukh Khan (Rs. 7.40 crore) did not lose out on too much money despite being released by Punjab Kings ahead of the auction. The Kings’ bid for price correction backfired on it as it lost the game of paddles to Gujarat Titans, with the Titans walking away with the burly hitter.
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